It’s month three of the March to Terra, and our authors have been hard at work on their Legions (some harder than others). We’re also joined this month by new contributor Henry and his Raven Guard, to add yet another loyalist to the series. I’m sure Traitor players are rejoicing – though as we’ll see, they’ve been well served by Lupe in particular making rapid progress (clearly the Alpha Legion had already infiltrated these assets into the system and are now slowly unveiling them).
You can check out part 1 and part 2 here to see where we’d gotten to so far, and as a reminder, here’s which Praetor is taking on which Legion:
- MasterSlowPoke: III Legion – Emperor’s Children
- Magos Sockbert IV Legion – Iron Warriors
- Soggy: V Legion – White Scars
- Bair: VII Legion – Imperial Fists
- Rockfish: VII Legion – Imperial Fists
- Jack: IX Legion – Blood Angels
- Liam: IX Legion – Blood Angels
- Beanith: X Legion – Iron Hands
- Lenoon: XIII Legion – Ultramarines
- Contemptor Kevin: XIII Legion – Ultramarines
- Serotonin: XIV Legion – Death Guard
- RichyP: XVII Legion – Word Bearers
- NotThatHenryC: XIX Legion – Raven Guard
- Lupe: XX Legion – Alpha Legion
Let’s see how everyone’s progressed since last month.
Soggy
It’s a bit silly how much I’ve manged to paint since our last update a month ago, but lets go through it.
The first thing I finished was the FW White Scars Caterphactii Terminator, which I used to play my first game in Zone Mortalis, which was great fun and started to get my head around how this game works.
I am unable to really focus without a deadline, the harsher the better – four weeks ago a mate asked me to be his doubles partner at an event coming up this weekend. As he was going heavy on termies, I was going to provide some footsloggers for board control.
Armed with the Siege of Terra audiobooks, I got to work.
At this point I still had the two characters from the Age of Darkness boxset remaining, which I wanted to make as fitting as to the White Scars* as possible. I picked up the 40K Kor’sarro Khan kit and shared his parts across the two of them and was very happy with the results
*It was at this point I was listening to The Warhawk, which I thought was very appropriate.
I was really happy with the Stormseer and entered it into ArtistsEmpire‘s weekly free paint over streams. It got picked and was completely brought to life. Check out their work, it’s awesome.
Making some last minute tweaks to the list, I wanted to have my Legion specific Glaives on my front-line sergeant that would be in the thick of things. I was able to shave off one of the hands off this Grey Knight Halberd for a suitable stand in – hopefully the Inquisition doesn’t hunt this guy down.
With the Support Squad done it was time to restock and take a family photo for the up coming event. I hope I don’t suck too much
Bair
After last month’s shameful display of grey plastic, I’ve gotten almost all of that painted now and even got a nice little display cabinet to put my models in! 
I also built and painted my Dorn one of the Saturdays this month and while at Warhammer World picked up Alexis Pollux as well, which of course had to be built and painted immediately. I’m using my Breachers as Phalanx Warders for the time being until I get 10 more of them built and painted so I can use the Stone Gauntlet RoW which so far has done ok; it’s a very tough nut to crack but Warders don’t really do much in the way of killing with a single attack at WS4, even with AP2. Contemptors are always good and I need 2 more for sure.
I’m using a Rogue Trader model I picked up on the cheap as my Librarian too, something about having a model from that time in the army is just very cool, and he’s so hilariously short next to the rest of the army. I love it.
Lenoon
Alright, so. Last time I was thinking about background – the Mortificators, an ad-hoc formation turned Chapter designed to hunt out Word Bearers and other perfidious traitors infesting the 500 worlds. This time I painted (and thought more about background). I’ve arrived, just about, at a 1k Zone Mortalis force. Normally people go say something like “it doesn’t look pretty, but it’ll get the job done”. I’m going to go the other way and say this is 1k of models I think are cool and look good, so it’s pretty, but it probably won’t get the job done. You’re going to have to excuse the photos, again.
Mainly, I’ve been painting a big ol’ deadmarine and covering old marines in studs to make them look badass. I’m really pleased with the second dreadnought who was entirely sponge painted save for the freehand – not a single brush was applied to this model until the big U and the laurels and the annoyingly small script on shoulder and knee. Of course this meant that I didn’t manage to get the second half of tactical 2 done, or the recon marines, but c’est la vie.
With 1k out the way, I can slow even further down to think about individual iconography and personal markings for my marines. A lot of Ultramarines background in the Heresy talks about “multiple martial traditions” and the “mid Afrik hives”, and that Terran Ultramarines were recruited from all cultures as the “War Born”, but then all Ultramarines are Greco-Roman inspired. It’s bizarre – actual Rome was more visually and ethnically diverse than the Roman inspired legions. I can be charitable and say of course this is just GW’s massive fetish for Roman-inspired stuff for marines which leaches in absolutely everywhere, but really the visual cues from non-western cultures in Warhammer are usually Ancient Egyptians or Mesoamerican and/or kind of racist. So I’ve started to think of little ways to explore different spaces. The big one is the U, so the very simple visual signifier was to use that in different ways, different scripts and patterns. As a result, I’ve spent time detailing some of Tactical 2 with Amharic U’s (or more properly LUs) and a U-with-a-dot that was a happy accident after attempting to do the Heiro-Meroitic cow’s head shaped U. I’m happy with it, it’s subtle but I know it’s there, and I think I’ll do each squad with a different U and a different freehand marker from now on – the chequerboard isn’t seen everywhere.
Less subtle is the giant U in Georgian script on one of my Praetorian boarding party. The Praetorians were my solution to the imagined threat of someone actually getting into close combat despite the Ultramarine super-reaction of “everyone shoots”. These are the big box beakies, with whatever else I had to hand. The shields are from Mantic’s Enforcers, and if anyone has another four to give me that would be great, because I have six but I want ten. The idea behind this squad was the section from Know no Fear where Theil’s party are all armed with Guilliman’s personal weapons. Everyone has a unique sword, and the axeman wields a 30 year old plastic axe, and they’re all painted in a unique, equally time consuming style of painting weapons picked up from various instagram accounts. I’m really pleased with how they came out, and they look much more threatening than they actually are.
“Contemptor” Kevin Stillman
I’ve got nothin’ for you all this time around.
Well, OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But it’s true, I don’t have pictures of anything finished for this round of the March to Terra. Let me explain:
Over the past month, I have finished three models: a Primaris Techmarine for NoVa (a week away from the time I’m writing this), a Fortress of Redemption for the GHO, and a Marvel Unite: X-Men Blink. As Blink is my favorite superhero character and I saw the model at Comic-Con, I knew it had to be mine. So off to eBay I went and ordered one. I got it and primed it with GW’s new White Scar.
Well it turns out that between the humidity in DC and a new can of paint, the priming job on Blink was a bit chunkier than I was happy with. So I needed to chuck her into the Simple Green and start over. Since I had more Simple Green than I did Blink, I also chucked in a pile of Invictus Suzerians I bought and painted in 2016-2017. Because I didn’t understand how to work with Forge World Resin when I built and painted those models, the paintjobs on the models was 1) terrible 2) not consistent with my current Ultras and 3) dissolved instantly. So one of the things I’m working on now is a new set of Invictus Suzerians.
At the same time, I needed to redo the arms on my Assault Marines to turn them from chainsword/combat shield Marines into Power Sword/Bolt Pistol Marines. So I’ve spent my other hobby time scouring my bits box for appropriate arms and magnetizing them. So I have 20 assembled/primed arms sitting on my table.
I also purchased and assembled a Sicaran tank. But it’s too humid to prime right now.
So yeah. I have a bunch of things coming down the pike for the next March to Terra/Road to Chicago, but none are ready now.
Rockfish
Just a few things from me this time, I have been super busy with some life stuff lately so I haven’t really had quite so much time to put paint on plastic. As for the models I did get done, it was a bit of an assortment of different stuff like filling out this unit of Assault/Rotor Cannons.
Beyond that I got this Rhino done.
Serotonin
As I forewarned last month, August would be a potentially difficult time for me hobby wise, with it being the school holidays, and as it has turned out I was mostly correct.
Mostly correct because while I didn’t manage to actually finish a model this month, I managed to start multiple models. So currently in various states of completion from least to most, Ive base coated 5 Deathshroud terminators, 5 Heavy Support marines with lascannons, finished bar the bases 5 kitbashed Mk 3.5 Tactical marines and a kit bashed Siege Breaker Consul, base coated a Arquitor Bombard and nearly completed a Spartan bar its sponsons.
I was particularly excited about my Siege Breaker consul kitbash. I was incredibly brave and took a hobby saw to Forge World Legion Praetor in power armour, replaced his torso with a Death Guard Forge World torso, added the Mk2 head from the Spartan gunner kit, added a Mk6 Nuncio Vox, and 3d printed a bionic arm and smaller thunder hammer that looks a little more ‘construction industry’. Still a bit more weathering to do but so far I’m very pleased. Its the first time in many years that Ive attempted such a conversion. Taking a saw to a resin Forge World mini is never an easy thing to do; like sawing up a roll of bank notes.
Having struggled to get my hands on any more Mk3 marines, a friend came up trumps when he remembered he had unopened ‘Betrayal at Calth’ and ‘Burning of Prospero’ box sets hidden in his pile of shame. This gave me the opportunity to do a kit bashed unit based on a plate from the Death Guard section of the Liber Hereticus book. Very simple kit bash, done by replacing the Mk4 torso with a Mk3 one, then mix and matching shoulder pads. A small conversion but hugely effective and a great look for Death Guard that’s a little different from the rest of my Mk3 Tacticals.
In terms of playing games Ive had very instructive games against a friend, also a new 30k player, and his Blood Angels. We finally got my 3d printed Zone Mortalis board to the table and had fun wih the mission from White Dwarf. Mistakes were made but it moved along at a decent place and much fun was had. Wew then decided we wanted to try the full game rules and went for a 1500 point match up. Great fun, very bloody and I was really pleased with my Arquitor and tactical marines. However it quickly became apparent that Typhon and his Deathshroud retinue needed some wheels, as lumbering around no man’s land really didn’t cut it. Hence the Spartan being built and me entering into a resin and plastic arms race with my friend.
The end of this month will see me getting to play Zone Mortalis with RichyP and Corrode. Should be fun and promises some high quality models on the table if they are playing.
RichyP
Speaking of which, I needed to actually paint some Troop choices, as the last 3 updates have all been HQ and Elites & Heavy choices. So this months first entry is another Praetor..
He will most likely replace one of the other 4 I already did, but you know what a HQ heavy list needs, that’s right another HQ unit. This guy is a Legion Consul: Herald (with an icon pilfered from the brand new 40k Cultists box).
Finally done with this months bonus HQ units, I painted a Troop choice finally:
That guy with his flashy counts as Vexilla warp portal, was lonely so he was accompanied by some Rotor friends:
Not being line, and having no line units is bad (I’m told by people who actually play games) , so I had to paint more Troops this month:
They’re “Troop” if you have either the Serrated Sun Rite of War, and Line if you attach them to this guy from last month’s update:
But just in case I don’t run Argel for some reason, here’s 10 regular Troops (Despoiler Squad) to cover for the mutant lads:
This months 22 Word Bearers bring my points total up to over 2000pts now. I wanted to paint some more but for the second half of August we were on Vacation.
My next batch will be padding out the Rotor Squad, and maybe another Despoiler Squad. There’s also the possibility of a Rhino or 2, but school starts in 2 weeks so it’s going to be difficult to get some painting in.
I’ll do a fancy group shot in next months update because I have a feeling it’ll be light on other images due to work but it’ll look something like a less cramped Chaos Box that is their current home:
NotThatHenryC
I’ve recently joined the team here so I thought I’d join in this project. I’m making a new Raven Guard army that I plan to bring to this year’s London Grand Tournament in… not a very long time.
I’m going for a matt effect for maximum sneakiness. My models won’t feature too much shiny stuff – I’m using very dark Vallejo engine manifold paint for all the metal. The armour is quick, involving Black Templar contrast over a zenithal spray, but produces an effect I’m quite pleased with.
I’m going for light urban rubble for the bases, mainly because I wanted something to contrast with the black. With any luck this will allow me to find all my models after games, too.
I fought the temptation to begin with characters and started with a big block of 20 tactical marines. This was a good way to practice the scheme and also knock off a lot of the models I need. I have a second of these squads on the desk now, along with… quite a lot of other stuff.
Next up I painted a Contemptor that I’ve had knocking around for years without ever quite finishing it. I’ve used a different technique for its armour to try and show that it’s in shiny black rather than matt. This is how I intend to represent units coming from the sneaky “Talons” (who get infiltrate) or the “Falcons” and “Hawks” (who kind of get nothing, but that’s ok).
Next up a conversion, of an even older model. I’ve had three Predators pretty much since the Mars kit was released and I thought I’d refurbish them for this project. This either represents my guys breaking old kit out of reserve stores or manufacturing new things, following the losses at Istvaan V. I’ve heavily converted the turret here to create a melta version, using bits of StormHawk and a storage tank from Adeptus Titanicus.
My last complete unit so far is this set of Seekers. Actually this is a bit of a cheat because I’m planning a unit of 10, but this is a legal unit so I’m claiming it. I’m chuffed to bits to be able to use my Imperial Space Marine as the unit’s Sergeant. With an infravisor he’s BS6 so actually quite likely to survive firing his combi-disintegrator.
Stuff on the queue includes that second tactical squad, a couple of recon squads (with shotguns and sniper rifles), 10 Dark Furies and assorted characters. I’ve had fun kit bashing Kaedes Nex, a Librarian and a couple of Apothecaries. I should get paint on them soon-ish.
Magos Sockbert
This whole ‘March to Terra’ nonsense doesn’t really seem to track for me. Marching? On foot? What kind of uncivilised brute walks places?! Luckily, just in time for the new Horus Heresy supplement for Aeronautica Imperialis, the first of my IV Legion air assets have been deployed. Yes, I might have to shrink my marines down to get them to fit inside, but hey! 30K faction, 30K units, who cares about the scale?
In the more down-to-Earth (Terra) part of this journey I’ve managed to put the (mostly) finishing touches on a couple of elite units. Tyrant Siege Terminators are one of my go to units at the moment, and one of the few decently strong toys Iron Warriors have available to them. 10 of these with a Tyrant of Lyssatra is 30 S8 shots a turn, which is going to hurt anything it hits, even if the most elite warriors in the IV Legion only have WS and BS 4 for some bizarre reason.
My first Destroyer Assault Squad is also ready to hit the table. Yes, they should probably be in blackened armour, but I only remembered that halfway through the sleep deprived night I was painting them, so here we are. With the much more resilient nature of Astartes this edition Destroyers aren’t the nightmare they used to be (the single wound hurts a lot more now so many other units have two wounds), but a few power axes and hammers can still instant-death most units.
Keeping my Tyrants in good shape is our designated health and safety representative, a Primus Medicae. A 2+ armour save and a 5++ Feel No Pain is nasty in any game, though I’ve yet to actually put him on the table. Our good Patreon DaveyDweeb has noted that the pulse monitor on his left hip “presents with a normal sinus rhythm but likely intraventricular conduction delay”. This language is sorcery, and so Davey has been burned as a witch.
I have no idea how long I’ve had this Warsmith, but being a filthy loyalist I was never going to use him in 40k, so he’s taken a trip back in time to be a… something… for the IV Legion. He currently has no game purpose, so he currently poses on my shelf, pointing his melta at Ghazkul.
Finally, Narik Dreygur was finished this month. The “Gravewalker” was the only special character to get a model last edition, but it went out of production pretty dang fast (it may even have been event only?). Looking morosely at my Iron Warriors (I have the attention span of, well, your average wargamer) I’m thinking about some Salamanders joining the fray. Narik teamed up in with some survivors of Istvaan (in particular Cassian Dracos, a literal wizard robot), so a Shattered Legion force could be fun to build up for whenever those rules come out! Also, S6 flamers doing D6 auto hits in Zone Mortalis never hurt anyone, so let’s see where that leads us…
Lupe
The Alpha Legion continue their march not just to Terra but also to a heresy event in September where I need to be fielding 4000 points! As such, we’ve got a bunch of units painted this month and more on the way.
I also have 5 more lernaeans underway that very nearly made this article, and I did my first test model for the small Dark Angels detachment I’ll be adding.
Liam
The Blood Angels are growing slower than some of the other Legions in this series, but grow they have. This month I’ve gotten my first Tactical Squad polished off and the remaining Cataphractii Terminators, as well as a couple of Tactical Support guys with rotor cannons. Also Dominion Zephon, who doesn’t particularly feature in my initial ZM plans but does have a cool model.
Putting it all together looks decent at least, but there’s a long way to go yet – I still need to do a Despoiler Squad and another Tactical Squad for my initial ZM, and then probably more other stuff when I find out that list is crap. I have a few more big things kicking around (Kratos, Spartan, a Rhino, two Leviathans, and of course Sanguinius himself) but I’ll need more MkVI bodies to put special/heavy weapons on for different guns, and I’m also trying to resist the siren call of Dawnbreakers, more Contemptors, and Angel’s Tears. On the plus side, I can now ally in my Knights, if I wanted to jump up to playing bigger points values in a hurry…
Jack
I didn’t manage to paint a whole lot this month, though I’m quite happy with the three models I did get done. I got going on a bit of a conversion kick and threw together a couple characters based off the dawnbreaker bodies, one praetor, one apothecary, and a herald. I’m thinking the herald is going to come in clutch getting me a quick durable squad that can knock opponents off objectives and claim them for me, though partially that would need GW to have some more progressive scoring missions. I even managed to use the absolutely hateful curved flying stands without frosting them (and hopefully without them breaking as soon as I take them to a game).
